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**Creative HD vs Asus Xonar**

H

[H]ealer

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 13, 2006
Messages
108
need a new sound card. My old x-fi extreme music has finally given up the ghost. I like the new creative HD and the xonar cards. The question is which to buy. I probably would have already bought the creative card except that I believe it is only for 2.1 channel and I have Klipsch promedia 5.1. I guess I could give up the two rear channels...no biggie. I don't watch movies anyway and I can't place them behind my desk for positional effects in games. I play games and listen to music equally.

So which cards do you all suggest? Thanks in advance for the input:)
 
The higher end Xonar cards have top quality Burr-Brown DACs and will go great with your Klipsch speakers.

For you I'd check out the D2.
 
I was leaning towards the Xonar...anyone with the Creative card have any input?
 
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Well, the card periodically produces distorted sound. Sometimes a restart of the pc will fix it. Sometimes changing from game mode to audio creation mode will fix it, but then you are stuck in that mode if you want to hear clear sound. Tried lots of drivers. No luck. It just goes out randomly throughout the day...
 
[H]ealer;1036545354 said:
Well, the card periodically produces distorted sound. Sometimes a restart of the pc will fix it. Sometimes changing from game mode to audio creation mode will fix it, but then you are stuck in that mode if you want to hear clear sound. Tried lots of drivers. No luck. It just goes out randomly throughout the day...
Click to expand...

Mine was like that, turned out it wasn't seated right. No idea how it did that, but it was just barely in on the back side. Enough to be intermittent.
 
rive22 said:
The higher end Xonar cards have top quality Burr-Brown DACs and will go great with your Klipsch speakers.

For you I'd check out the D2.
Click to expand...
not for the sake of favoritism, rather fairness, but the new X-FI uses Burr-Brown as well.
 
I have owned the Essence STX and now a Titanium HD. I much rather the Titanium HD. Especially since you mentioned gaming and care less about the 5.1

And indeed the card does use the TI-BB DAC.
 
Since you have analog speakers, I'm going to suggest the Xonar Xense. It has the great features of the STX, plus 7.1 analog compatibility, as well as some new upgrades. The only sticking point is that if you don't need the custom Senn 350 headset, you're paying for something you don't really need - I wish the card was available on its own.

For me, Creative is a nightmare with drivers and though the HD is the first "serious" card they've offered in a long time, the Xonar line is built on some tried-and-true tech. The Xense seems to be the best for "general use, high end", but you could also go for the DX to save money. In addition, HTOmega just launched the eClaro which is their first PCI-E card.
 
rive22 said:
The higher end Xonar cards have top quality Burr-Brown DACs and will go great with your Klipsch speakers.

For you I'd check out the D2.
Click to expand...

and i have the klipsch 2.1's and a set of 5.1's which i switch back and forth based on need. if i am working with audio apps i am on 2.1's which i like crossover better on.

my older 5.1's i have had since a 2004 built Mach V from Falcon NW.

very few issues and none of any consequence with Asus compared to the nightmares of creative. ran the card with the midi daughter board above it thru vista ultimate 64 bit and now W7 Professional again 64 bit. asus just came out with new drivers across their entire soundcard lineup. the bundle with the D2X and others in the line is very good.

i liked the idea of pci-e board and it works great with asus mobo's although users of gigabyte did need a small firmware "addition" for what ever reasons.

many on asus boards where crying for new drivers but audio drivers rarely need an upgrade unless there is a clear instability and i have found more often then not it is a plain hardware issue. well they came out with new drivers which added a nice rite click ASIO control panel context menu and what my ears percieved as a volume softening somewhat. they also showed errors using DXDIAG. this is again lates version XX.1992 drivers...so i went back to XX.1977 version and back to my stabile as a rock drivers.

while there have been card changes over the past few years nothing really earth shattering and while changable ops for headphones is a nice touch most won't use them.


if you can find a new D2X you won't be disappointed
http://www.guru3d.com/article/asus-xonar-d2x-review/

http://usa.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=ZBWhAEnH6nDOB00E&content=specifications

i am no gamer so can't say anything about that but having a lot of dvd audio and such this card did it for me.

i went into last build going for creatives offering with the breakout box as had much interference on card that had breakout box to mount in case in dvd slot... not too pleased with that. i understand they cleaned it up wiring wise so who knows. check out the asus forums i post there and most are pretty knowledgable about the product.
And one user has made a unified set of drivers with ASIO that are many say very good also.

while 7.1 and other on board audo has become a lot better over the years again truth is nothing real groundbreaking sound card wise for the consumer level.... go pro and there are more afferings but for much different applications then gaming and day to day stuff.
 
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